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I've never seen it in a store, however I have purchased starter from King Arthur through the post. I had great luck with the KA starter, but not straight off-a starter will take time to develop and will change depending how you feed it. I used First Clear flour to feed it and made some of the beast breads of my life, but I primarily bake rye. It kept going over a year but was sadly lost in the tornado last spring. I've learned a bit since then and would probably grow my own were I to do it again. The KA starter was very easy to start growing (they send you a blob of starter in a plastic bottle) and I think it was ready to use in a couple days. Again, the personality of the starter will change depending what you feed it with. It can also be split into a couple of different starters if you want to try feeding one with whole wheat. Don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to talk your sister out of buying starter but if you do it, and want good results then it pays to feed it and maintain it with good flour-and water. I used bottled water to feed it because our water would have killed it in the first week. Heavily chlorinated water is supposed to be bad as well, but having well water, I can't vouch for that.

I wonder, if your sister asked around if someone might have some to share (starter grows like mad and you always have more than a single family can use. It is also limiting in that you become reluctant to bake anything except sourdough-because you have all that starter. )

Don't buy the $20. crock they try to sell with it. Use a large glass jar with a wide mouth and keep it loosely covered with plastic. It will get a film on it over time, but a good scouring with Dawn will take care of that-just make sure you get it all out or again, the starter will suffer. Sterilising with boiling water isn't a bad idea either. I suspect if your sister purchases a starter, you'll soon find a jar of your own growing in the fridge (because there will be more of it than she can possibly give away).

Sorry for the extra-long brain vomit-I'm old and am not going to learn to be concise at this point in my life.

P.S. The toss-off makes killer onion-ring coating.

Good luck.

Bread "machine" + doesn't wanna make her starter from scratch? Hm. Wish I could help here. Safeway?

KAF Will will sell you some, or you can google Oregon Trail Starter and you'll find a website that will send you freeze-dried starter if you send them a return envelope with postage. They also have good instructions on how to wake it up and how to grow it.

Honestly, though, it's not that much harder to start your own starter than it is to reawaken a dormant one. The difference is that you're getting a different strain of starter than you would if you grew it yourself.

I've got three starters in my fridge now. One is home-grown, one is the Oregon Trail starter, and one is a French starter. They're all a different as far as how they grow and the sort of bread that results. If that matters to you, then buying or aquiring a non-native starter is a good idea. If you don't want to have a variety of them, then you might want to consider growing one. It's basically just flour, water, and time.

If you find a starter recipe that tells you to add potato peels, milk, or other ingredients, keep looking. That just gives other bacteria a home to grow. You really only need flour and water.

As far as not covering it tightly or the need to take care of it scrupulously, or having too much of it that you have to give it away, I'm not sure what instructions are being followed, but I've got my starters in pint containers, covered, and I bring them out when I want to use them. I store just a few tablespoons full of starter, which is plenty. The oldest is about ten years old, I'd estimate. They've gone unattended for months at a time and they wake up just fine when I need them. So, if you find yourself with instructions that have you buried in starter, look elsewhere. That really isn't necessary.

As far as washing things with Dawn or bleach, it's not clear what's being washed, but whatever container you keep your starter in has to be clean of all cleaning products, or you're going to kill the starter. After all, you're trying to grow yeast and bacteria, neither of which are going to be very happy if they come in contact with strong cleaners.

If you think the container that you're keeping the starter in is starting to look too cruddy, just move the starter to a clean container, but make sure you've rinsed it well so there's no soap or other cleaning products left behind.

Not entirely sure what the "film" is that @goody is talking about. You will get dried starter on the sides of the container, but that's not a problem. If it's a film on top of the starter, I suspect there's some sort of unwanted mold growth. There's also a darkish liquid that can form on top of a starter. It's just a byproduct of the yeast and bacteria action. Some people pour it off, some people stir it back in. Either way, it's not something that needs bleaching action.

Thanks everyone! I just might make her a starter.

And no snarky bread machine comments from me. I got one as a wedding present 11 years ago and it sat in the box for 2 years before I discovered how useful it is. I just don't have the time or energy to babysit dough and I don't have to. I'm yet to find a kind of bread I can't make in my bread machine.

@love2cook, I'll check out your site for a starter recipe. it sounds like yours is very low maintenance, just what I need.

bead machines rule!!!

@goody, the inside of all my sourdough jars get some dried flour and water, which can be thick or thin depending on how thick or thin the sourdough mixture is, but since the starter lives in the same jars for years on end, I'm not washing that stuff off -- it just gets mixed back in when the starter rises up that far again and rehydrates it.

The only time I wash the jars is if the threads for the lids get gooped up and the lids start getting stuck. That doesn't happen often, though. I'm talking in terms of years, not months or weeks.

If you're getting some other kind of film inside the glass, I don't think it's something most people should expect to happen unless they've got the same water problems you do. But you said you use bottled water, so I'm not sure where the hard water issue comes into play unless this is something that's in the jars before the starter goes in?

I see that you didn't mention bleach -- must have been a different thread that crossed paths in my mind, but you did mention sterilizing with boiling water, but I wasn't clear what you want sterilized. Or even why. Or at what point in the process. The jars should be clean before you start, but you made it sound like this was something you were doing after the starter was growing, unless I read that wrong, as well.

The first time I read what you wrote, I thought you were advocating sterilizing the culture with boiling water, but that didn't make sense, since you're obviously keeping your culture alive.

You know what you meant, but the way the sentence is written, it wasn't clear what "it" was that got a film or what you wanted to scrub and sterilize, and someone new to sourdough might have read it the same wrong way I did the first time. Same with your comment about rinsing. You said "make sure you get it all out" and the way I read it, you were saying it was important to get all the film out, rather than all of the Dawn out. Again, you know what you intended to convery, but that's not how I read it. Not a big deal for me, but someone who was starting their first culture might be even more befuddled than me.

@gastronomydomine- I saw that web address mentioned in Jeff Varasano's Pizza recipe page over on "SLICE". I'm interested in giving it a try, but I've haven't had much luck with sourdough experiments in the past. How has it worked out for you with the specimens that you ordered?